The epic tale of victory and defeat… The story of the Ramayana had been told innumerable times. The enthralling story of Rama, the incarnation of God, who slew Ravana, the evil demon of darkness, is known to every Indian. And in the pages of history, as always, it is the version told by the victors, that lives on. The voice of the vanquished remains lost in silence. But what if Ravana and his people had a different story to tell? The story of the Ravanayana had never been told. Asura is the epic tale of the vanquished Asura people, a story that has been cherished by the oppressed outcastes of India for 3000 years. Until now, no Asura has dared to tell the tale. But perhaps the time has come for the dead and the defeated to speak. “For thousands of years, I have been vilified and my death is celebrated year after year in every corner of India. Why? Was it because I challenged the Gods for the sake of my daughter? Was it because I freed a race from the yoke of caste-based Deva rule? You have heard the victor’s tale, the Ramayana. Now hear the Ravanayana, for I am Ravana, the Asura, and my story is the tale of the vanquished.” “I am a non-entity – invisible, powerless and negligible. No epics will ever be written about me. I have suffered both Ravana and Rama – the hero and the villain or the villain and the hero. When the stories of great men are told, my voice maybe too feeble to be heard. Yet, spare me a moment and hear my story, for I am Bhadra, the Asura, and my life is the tale of the loser.” The ancient Asura empire lay shattered into many warring petty kingdoms reeling under the heel of the Devas. In desperation, the Asuras look up to a young saviour – Ravana. Believing that a better world awaits them under Ravana, common men like Bhadra decide to follow the young leader. With a will of iron and a fiery ambition to succeed, Ravana leads his people from victory to victory and carves out a vast empire from the Devas. But even when Ravana succeeds spectacularly, the poor Asuras find that nothing much has changed for them. It is when that Ravana, by one action, changes the history of the world.About the AuthorI was born in a quaint little village called Thripoonithura, on the outskirts of Cochin, Kerala. Located east of mainland Ernakulam, across Vembanad Lake, this village had the distinction of being the seat of the Cochin royal family. However, it was more famous for its hundred odd temples; the various classical artists it produced and its music school. I remember many an evening listening to the faint rhythm of Chendas from the temples and the notes of the flute escaping over the rugged walls of the school of music. Gulf money and the rapidly expanding city of Cochin have, however, wiped away all remaining vestiges of that old world charm. The village has evolved into the usual, unremarkable, suburban hell hole, clones of which dot India. Growing up in a village with more temples than was necessary, it was no wonder that the Ramayana fascinated me. Ironically, I was drawn to the anti-hero of the epic Ravana, and to his people, the Asuras. I wondered about their magical world. But my fascination remained dormant for many years, emerging only briefly to taunt and irritate my pious aunts during family gatherings. Life went on... I became an engineer; joined the Indian Oil Corporation; moved to Bangalore; married Aparna and welcomed my daughter Ananya, and my son, Abhinav. But the Asura emperor would not leave me alone. For six years he haunted my dreams, walked with me, and urged me to write his version of the story. He was not the only one who wanted his version of the story to be told. One by one, irrelevant and minor characters of the Ramayana kept coming up with their own versions. Bhadra, who was one of the many common Asuras who were inspired, led and betrayed by Ravana, also had a remarkable story to tell, different from that of his king. And both their stories are different from the Ramayana that has been told in a thousand different ways across Asia over the last three millennia. This is then Asurayana, the story of the Asuras, the story of the vanquished. Views: 605
Combining the best of modern forensic thrillers with the drama of medieval fiction, New York Times' bestselling author Ariana Franklin returns with the third title in the Mistress of the Art of Death series.
England, 1176. Beautiful, tranquil Glastonbury Abbey—one of England's holiest sites, and believed by some to be King Arthur's sacred Isle of Avalon—has been burned almost to the ground. The arsonist remains at large, but the fire has uncovered something even more shocking: two hidden skeletons, a man and a woman. The skeletons' height and age send rumors flying- are the remains those of Arthur and Guinevere?
King Henry II hopes so. Struggling to put down a rebellion in Wales, where the legend of Celtic savior Arthur is particularly strong, Henry wants definitive proof that the bones are Arthur's. If the rebels are sure that the Once and Future King will not be coming to their aid, Henry can stamp out the insurgence for good. He calls on Adelia Aguilar, Mistress of the Art of Death, to examine the bones.
Henry's summons comes not a moment too soon, for Adelia has worn out her welcome in Cambridge. As word of her healing powers has spread, so have rumors of witchcraft. So Adelia and her household ride to Glastonbury, where the investigation into the abbey fire will be overseen by the Church authorities—in this case, the Bishop of St. Albans, who happens also to be the father of Adelia's daughter. Views: 605
What would you do if a secret government agency came to you and asked you to help them beat back the paranormal creatures encroaching on our world? You'd laugh in their faces, right? So did Will and Emily. At first...This is a collection of two full-sizes books. Each book is the start of its own series, and they have several things in common:2 strong heroines, 2 sexy heroes, dogs and cats, and stories that make you care deeply.STARDUST MIRACLE (Miracle Interrupted)A miracle is going to happenBecky Diedrich is the cheesemaker’s daughter.The minister’s wife.The good sister.What she’s not is her own woman.What she can’t be is a mother.And then she catches her husband with another woman.And she moves in with her sister.And she starts to see sparkles.And this is just the beginning…* * *HEARTS IN MOTION – (Rescued Hearts, book 1)Take two cats, a dog, and a determined woman...Animal lover Abby Pimm isn’t looking for love. With two rescue cats, one rescue dog, a struggling business, and her fourteen-year-old sister to raise, she’s got her hands full. What she needs is an angel – though she’ll settle for the devil if he’ll invest in her fledgling company and keep it afloat.Add a six-year-old girl...Wealthy businessman Holden Ramsay is no devil. He’s doing all the right things, and when he’s forced to care for his ex’s six-year-old daughter, he ends up hiring Abby as a temporary sitter – a woman who lights up his damaged heart, and perks up other organs as well. A woman who might be his redemption...or his downfall.Who’s rescuing who?The animals that Abby rescued think maybe it’s time they do a little rescue work of their own—because sometimes humans in love can be so dense... Views: 605
Magic Club is supposed to be fun for Frankie Miller and his friends. But that pest, Ari Goodwyn is always ruining everyone's tricks. After a really embarrassing fail, Frankie wants revenge. When the legendary magician, Mystical Marvin, comes to town to perform his daring stunts, Frankie sees an opportunity to get even with Ari. There's only one problem: everything goes wrong. Can Frankie and his friends make things right? Or will the opportunity to disappear...forever. Views: 605
Sixteen-year-old Kitty Granger has always known that others consider her peculiar. She hates noise and crowds, tends to fixate on patterns, and often feels acutely aware of her surroundings even as she struggles to interpret the behavior of people around her. As a working-class girl in London's East End, she's spent her whole life learning to hide these traits. Until the day when she notices the mysterious man on the bus and finds herself following him, driven to know why he seems so out of place...only to accidentally uncover the location of a Russian spy ring.When Kitty's keen observation and quick thinking help her survive a dangerous encounter, two secret agents working for Her Majesty's government offer her a job in their espionage operation.Kitty's first mission pits her against a conspiracy led by a prominent politician―who's also a secret fascist. With help from an unusual team of fellow spies, Kitty must use her wits, training, and instincts... Views: 605
Maurice Traherne is wrongly accused of fraud and gambling and must play a careful hand if he is to win his love, Octavia, from the grasp of other, less honorable men and retain the trust of those who had faith in him. Traherne is temporarily crippled saving the life of his well-born friend, Jaspar. Thus, Jaspar is assured of inheriting his father's estate, but it is expected that Traherne will inherit great wealth as gratitude for saving the heir. But--surprise!--on the death of Jaspar's father all are shocked to learn that Traherne has been disinherited: the will has been changed at the last minute and only the suffering Traherne knows why but won't tell and then he falls in love with Jaspar's sister, the fair Octavia. However, Octavia is forbidden to marry, as Traherne is penniless. Views: 605
An all-new historical mystery in this USA Today bestselling series featuring beloved inquiry agents Lady Kiera Darby and her dashing husband, Sebastian Gage.Argyll, Scotland. July 1832. After a trying few months in Edinburgh, Kiera and her husband and investigative partner, Sebastian Gage, are eager to escape to the Highlands with their three-month-old child. Kiera is overjoyed for her cousin Rye and her detractor-turned-friend Charlotte who are being wed in a private ceremony at the estate of Rye’s great-uncle, the Marquess of Barbreck, in what seems to be the perfect wedding party. But when Kiera is invited to peruse Barbreck’s extensive art collection, she is disturbed to discover that one of his most priceless paintings seems to be a forgery. The marquess’s furious reaction when she dares to mention it leaves her shaken and the entire house shocked. For it turns out that this is not the first time the word forgery... Views: 605
A chance encounter in the woods causes a recluse to dredge up old memoriesHe meets her in a stranger's backyard. Harry is a child walking home from school, and Agnes is a young girl playing in the creek behind her house. While their parents speak, the children play, and Agnes explains the supernatural. She uses cookie dough to make statues of ghosts, she tells him, which she sets free in the river. So begins an enchantment that will last the rest of Harry's life. Years later he is a disbarred lawyer, living a reclusive life outside a Westchester commuter town. Memories of Agnes, dead for a decade, haunt him. He befriends a shivering young runaway, an encounter which forces him to confront his past for the first time, unearthing a mystery which stretches back to the Holocaust, and revolves around that strange young girl he met so long ago. Views: 605
When he was the NYPD’s top homicide investigator, Dave Gurney was never comfortable with the label the press gave him: super detective. He was simply a man who, when faced with a puzzle, wanted to know. He was called to the investigative hunt by the presumptuous arrogance of murderers – by their smug belief that they could kill without leaving a trace. There was always a trace, Gurney believed.
Except what if one day there wasn’t?
Dave Gurney, a few months past the Mellery case that pulled him out of retirement and then nearly killed him, is trying once again to adjust to his country house’s bucolic rhythms when he receives a call about a case so seductively bewildering that the thought of not looking into it seems unimaginable—even if his beloved wife, Madeleine, would rather he do anything but.
The facts of what has occurred are horrible: a blushing bride, newly wed to an eminent psychiatrist and just minutes from hearing her congratulatory toast, is found decapitated, her head apparently severed by a machete. Though police investigators believe that a Mexican gardener killed the young woman in a fit of jealous fury, the victim’s mother—a chilly high-society beauty—is having none of it. Reluctantly drawn in, Dave is quickly buffeted by a series of revelations that transform the bizarrely monstrous into the monstrously bizarre.
Underneath it all may exist one of the darkest criminal schemes imaginable. And as Gurney begins deciphering its grotesque outlines, some of his most cherished assumptions about himself are challenged, causing him to stare into an abyss so deep that it threatens to swallow not just him but Madeleine, too.
Desperate to protect Madeleine and bring an end to the madness, Gurney ultimately discovers that the killer has left a trace after all. Unfortunately, the revelation may come too late to save his own life.
With Shut Your Eyes Tight, John Verdon delivers on the promise of his internationally bestselling debut, Think of a Number, creating a portrait of evil let loose across generations that is as rife with moments of touching humanity as it is with spellbinding images of perversity. Views: 605
New York Times bestselling author John Connolly masterfully intertwines mystery, emotion, violence, and the supernatural in this raw and gripping thriller.
He has been told the girl's last words, and he feels unaccountably afraid. The dead ones. They were dead, but they had lights. Why do the dead need light?
Three hundred years ago, the settlers on the small Maine island of Sanctuary were betrayed to their enemies and slaughtered. Since then, the island has known peace. Until now. A gang of four men are descending on Sanctuary, intent on committing a brutal and relentless massacre. All that stands in their way are rookie police officer Sharon Macie and the strange, troubled officer Joe Dupree.
But Joe is no ordinary policeman. He knows the island has been steeped in blood once and that it will never again tolerate the shedding of innocent blood. The band of killers who are set to desecrate Sanctuary will unleash the fury of its ghosts upon themselves and all who stand by them. On Sanctuary, all hell is about to break loose ... Views: 605
When forensic anthropologist Diane Fallon discovers a trio of decades-old skeletons, she also unearths the key to a mystery that reaches back seventy years in a legacy of love, greed, and murder-and an unearthed family secret that still holds the power to kill. Views: 604
